


Life Changer

by phoenixburncold



Series: Snippets of the Mystery Skulls Team [3]
Category: Mystery Skulls, Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Blood, Changing POV, Gen, Hospital, LITERALLY, Multi, The Beginning of the End, Vivi asks Lewis out, an important hunt, because i can't stay with just one person, injuries, life changer, talking spectre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28270572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixburncold/pseuds/phoenixburncold
Summary: Bonus points to the fellow dorks who can name the show and episode I stole the spectre handling lol. Also, pals, I'm drowning in ideas for this fandom. Don't send help tho, these past two months I've written more in than the six months before.
Series: Snippets of the Mystery Skulls Team [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026360
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Life Changer

Arthur creeps into the backyard, holding his bag of iron beads open, eyes wide. He swallows, his throat as dry as the grass that crunches under his shoes, looking frantically around the yard. The shed is a few feet away, door hanging partially open. He moves toward the large building, toeing open the door gently to look inside. Daylight pours into the shed, revealing hanging towing chains, a workbench with a wooden ship model half-finished and dusty blueprints of ships on it, and a wall of tools, all untouched for months. 

This had to be the place the teenager Tom Linder spent most of his time. Arthur’s heart twinges – this place looks like his own room, models and blueprints scattered over a workbench. For a moment, fear is tempered by compassion and pity. Without Lewis and Vivi’s friendship, Arthur would have been the same as this kid, though probably not dead. At least he didn't _think_ anyone hated him enough to kill him. 

A hand lands on his shoulder, making Arthur yelp, jump, and scramble slightly forward into the shed. 

A sad-looking teenager hovers there in the sunlight. He’s the same height as Arthur with a few inches of air under him, he’s slouched slightly, and his eyes. Gods his eyes look so miserable. 

Arthur swallows again, pity still outweighing his fear. “Hey buddy,” he manages. “Tom right?” 

The ghost nods sadly. Arthur opens his mouth to speak. “Arthur, you find anything?” 

Arthur looks around the ghost to see Lewis walking out of the house. The ghost turns around. Lewis and the ghost see each other at the same time and the change to the spirit is instantaneous. The sad slouch disappears into rod-like straightness, the phantom seems to swell twice as big like a spooked cat, even the color changes from an almost translucent to a deep blue. Lewis’s eyes go wide and Arthur scrambles back a little more. The phantom stalks toward Lewis. 

“You look just like Michael.” 

“Holy shit,” Vivi says from behind Lewis. “You can _talk_?!” 

The spectre reaches for Lewis, who maneuvers to the side. “I’m sorry,” Lewis says, speaking carefully and moving slowly, making a wide arch in the yard. “Michael did a horrible thing to you Tom. You didn’t deserve to die. But Michael’s in prison now. My name’s Lewis.” 

“You still have a weapon behind your back,” snarls the phantom. 

“You’ve hurt a few people Tom,” Lewis tells him. 

“Bullies,” the spectre spits. “Big guys that always bully the little guys like me.” The way the ghost talks is odd, like each word has to be pulled into existence to a beat the living cannot hear. 

“Lewis is no bully,” snaps Vivi, eyes burning, fists on her hips as she glares over her glasses at the phantom from her spot near the backdoor. “Lewis protects the little guys. Look at Arthur! He’s our best friend!” 

The spectre flashes a look at Arthur, who manages a weak hand lift, before glaring at Lewis. “You look just like Michael,” he says again in the same tone as before, hate dripping off his words. 

Arthur glances at the workbench again, seeing there was no hope in talking this ghost out of his haunting. He sees a small smudge of blood on the wood on the ship model, squinting at it for a second before his eyes go wide. The ship model is glowing, faintly, hard to see in the burning sunlight. Arthur swallows again. The spectre is reaching for Lewis, face twisted an evil grin. His pity disappears and he grabs the model. “Vi,” he cries before lobbing it at her. 

Vivi catches it with ease, seeing the blood smear, and flashing Arthur a grin before she kneels, digging into the bag slung over her shoulder and producing her lighter. 

The spectre flinches when Arthur grabs the ship, but his focus is unmoving from Lewis. Lewis twists away, but the spectre seems to be done playing keep away. A heavy hand clasps his shoulder, holding him in place. Lewis reaches for his pipe with his other arm, trying to strike at the phantom, but the spectre bats the hand away like it was nothing. The pipe flies into the yard, thumping to the ground. The hand on his shoulder clamps down harder, threatening to break bones, making him wince hard enough he doesn’t see the fist coming for him before it’s too late. 

Instantly, pain shatters his thoughts as his jaw pops out of place. Blood pools in his mouth and he sputters, crimson dribbling down to stain the browning grass. Stunned, Lewis can do nothing against the fist the slams into his gut with enough force to lift him a few inches into the air, his body doubling over the fist. Blood sprays in the air and his breath follows it. The spectre yanks and tugs at Lewis like he’s a doll, lifting him high into the air and shaking him hard before dropping him. Lewis lands on the ground his bad shoulder at the perfect angle; it pops out of place again. His brain sparks in pain, and the bad landing is the last straw. The lights go out for Lewis, drowning in a wave of pain. 

Vivi watches the spectre manhandle Lewis like a toy, willing the flames to burn faster on the ship before her. Desperate, she rips up the grass at her knees, sprinkling it over the ship, the dead leaves catching fire quickly and aiding in the flames that is slowly eating up the ship. But instead of disappearing, the spectre just seems to get angrier, jerking Lewis into the air by the shoulder. Vivi rips more grass, finding big dead maple leaves nearby and throwing them onto the fire. With a scream, the phantom drops Lewis, form flickering like a candle in the wind. But not disappearing. Vivi watches the wooden ship lose all sense of shape, crumbling into ashes under the decent flame, but the phantom remains, holding his head between his hands as if trying to drown out a noise only he can hear. With another howl, he drops over Lewis, punching him hard in the face and gut. 

Vivi doesn’t know what to do now. The teenager had been pulled out of the lake where he was drowned and his parents had cremated him months ago. The ship turning to ash should have sent the phantom to rest, but it seems it only devolved him into the type of ghosts they normally worked with – one singular emotion ruling over coherent thought and demanding to be obeyed. 

“Arthur!” 

Arthur watches the ship burn and is equally disturbed when the phantom doesn’t disappear. And Lewis isn’t moving anymore, despite the heavy hits coming at him. Arthur springs forward, shutting himself in the shed in hopes of finding something else glowing in the shadows, but sees nothing. Flinging the door open, he moves to Vivi’s side as she calls out for him. 

“What can we do?” he asks. “Vivi! What else is there to do?” The fire is contained by the water line Vivi had made around the fire to keep it from spreading through the yard, so the fire is already dying between them. 

“I don’t know,” Vivi replies, unable to tear her eyes from the phantom’s back as he continues to swing at Lewis. 

“Vivi! Pull yourself together.” Arthur grabs her gently by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. “What can we do?” 

“I don’t know! If the ship was just his focus, anything or any _one_ could be his anchor!” 

Arthur looks over his shoulder. The chain-link fence of the backyard has a gate near the spectre and he can see just the edge of the Van from where Arthur had parked it in the front. That sparks a half-formed idea. He looks back at Vivi. “Get the Van. Back it as close as you can to that gate.” 

“Why?” 

“No time Vivi! We gotta get Lewis from under that phantom before he’s turned into a bloody pulp!” 

“Okay,” Vivi says, trust in her eyes as she stands. “Don’t do anything too crazy.” 

Arthur gives a forced laugh before Vivi races through the house to the Van. Arthur sniffs, heading for the shed. “Everything with these two is crazy,” he says to no one. 

Vivi backs almost into the gate for Arthur. She flings open the door to come out when he waves her to stay in place and then ducks under the Van hooking one end of the chain length in his hands onto the axle of the Van before yelling, “When I say go, hit the gas and don’t stop til you see sparks!” 

“What are you going to do?” she asks, half hanging out of the door. 

“Something crazy!” 

Arthur swallows hard, looping the iron chain as best he can before moving closer to the spectre. Even though at first Arthur is definitely in its field of vision, the phantom doesn’t stop the merciless attacks on Lewis. _Hang on buddy_ , Arthur thinks before looping the chain around the phantom’s neck. The spectre pauses, the chain burning. 

“Go!” he screams, but Vivi’s already punched it, no doubt watching from the review mirror. The Van skitters away, dragging the spectre through the gate onto its back on the street, screaming. Bit by bit the ghost is torn apart. The hulking version fades into the scared teenager before giving out one last shriek and bursting. Sparks fly from the now-empty chains on the pavement and Vivi swings the Van around, going almost as fast as she races back to the gate. 

Arthur kneels beside Lewis the moment he sees the ghost disappear. “Aw buddy.” 

Lewis is a bloody mess. Both eyes are black, one swollen shut. His jaw hangs unnaturally, blood dripping out the side. His nose is bloody but unbroken, his lips swollen and cut. Arthur gently pulls at Lewis’s lips. _It looks like he still has all his teeth at least, which means the blood is from a punctured lip or cheek, that's a good sign. He didn’t swallow his tongue either,_ Arthur notes. His shoulder is out of place again, a sure sign that once popped out of a socket the body always likes to return to that state after a little damage. 

Arthur moves his hands downward, gently checking Lewis for any other injuries, but can’t tell much just by feeling. 

Lewis produces a deep moan, his good eye opening slowly. “Art,” he manages, blood and spit drooling from the unhinged jaw. His eye speaks of pain. 

“Shh Lewis, don’t talk buddy. You’ve got a dislocated jaw if you’re lucky, broken if you're not.” 

Lewis moans again just as Vivi throws herself out of the Van towards them. “Lewis!” 

“He’s alive Vi. He’s hurt but he’ll be okay.” 

“Oh Lewis,” Vivi sighs, putting her hand in his good one. Lewis’s gaze softens as he looks at her in a way that makes Arthur’s stomach twist but he ignores it. 

“Can you stand?” Arthur asks. “Move your head _slowly_.” 

Lewis swallows, looking up at the sky a moment, taking inventory of his body, before nodding slowly. Arthur stands and reaches out his hand. Lewis releases Vivi to firmly grasp Arthur, and the smaller man pulls Lewis to his feet in a fluid, almost effortless motion. Lewis leans on Arthur with his good arm slung around him. “I got ya,” Arthur says, holding the tall man up. Lewis nods slowly again before they start walking toward Van, Vivi rushing ahead to throw open the side door. 

It is a rarity that Mystery isn’t with them, stuck with Vivi’s parents with a cold, but Arthur is grateful he doesn’t have to worry about the dog right now. Lewis carefully gets into the backseat, his tall body taking up the entire seat prone and then some, having to scrunch his legs slightly to let Arthur shut to the door. “I’ll drive,” Arthur says, earning a nod from Vivi, who goes to the back of the Van to unhook the chain to the Van, coiling it, throwing it into the yard and shutting the gate behind her. She leaps into the Van and they get moving. 

Arthur drives through the town he grew up in, not nostalgic in the least. This town had nothing but bad memories. The good times happened the neighboring city, where the school that he met Lewis was and where he made his home now. Unfortunately, the house they came to is on the other side of town, and as much as Arthur preferred to go to Tempo’s hospital, he is forced in the other direction. 

“Try to stay awake back there okay Lew?” Arthur tells him, focus split between the traffic and his best friend. 

Lewis grunts in reply, lifting his good arm slightly and pretending to orchestrate. It was their inside joke, pretending to be the leader of an orchestra – the concussion conductor they called it. A year of being Mystery Skulls had given them plenty of little quirks. 

About halfway there, Arthur notices Lewis’s slowing down, even stopping. “Vi,” he says to the woman beside her. 

“He’s still conscious,” comes the reply, her body almost completely turned around to watch Lewis, her lap belt straining. “Hang on Lew, we’re nearly there.” 

Lewis makes no verbal reply, and instead stares at the ceiling of the Van, as if all his focus is going into staying awake. 

Arthur speeds up a little more, whipping around a slower vehicle before taking the necessary turn, the hospital sign finally in view. “Almost there bud.” 

Lewis is barely hanging on by the time Arthur pulls up to the emergency room door. Arthur hardly has the Van in park before Vivi’s opening the door. The two gently ease Lewis out of the Van, Arthur taking Lewis onto his shoulder as Vivi races inside. By the time they walk into the place, two nurses are already around the counter, taking note of Lewis. A flurry of motion blurs time for Arthur, until he finds himself sitting next to Vivi with a clipboard between them. They fill out the paperwork between the two of them and are left waiting anxiously for some time. In the silence between them, Arthur fidgets with the zipper on his vest. 

“How did you know that would work?” Vivi finally asks, bringing Arthur out of his worried thoughts. 

Arthur blinks at her, processing the question in silence for a moment before going, “Oh. I didn’t.” He chuckles self-consciously. “I…I saw it in a TV show once.” 

Vivi looks at him, trying to see if he’s joking or not. Then she breaks out in first a smile and then a full-blown laugh. Arthur laughs with her, and the two fill the waiting room with hysterical laughing, shot nerves finally releasing their tension. 

When they’re finally allowed into Lewis’s room, Arthur’s gut feels twisted. Lewis lays in the bed, unconscious. Even in the bed he looks big, which is some relief. His jaw was back in place and wrapped heavily, bandages wrapping under it and over his head, holding it firmly shut. The doctor had said it was just a dislocated jaw, so at least he didn’t have to have his jaw wired shut to heal. His shoulder is back in place too, a sling holding the arm in place. He also had bruised ribs and a couple of small fractures on his face, but the doctor had seemed confident they would heal with rest and time. 

Vivi takes one of his hands and Arthur takes the other, both mindful of the wires attaching Lewis to the machines. The doctors had said he probably wouldn’t wake until the next day and looking at Lewis, Arthur couldn’t help but hope that was true. 

`````` 

Arthur knocks on the doorframe before walking into the room. Lewis is sitting up in the bed, watching as Arthur enters. “Arthur,” he says, eyes dancing even circled by blue and purple, the bandages still around his head and jaw. “You just missed my sisters.” He has to talk slowly, unable to open his mouth properly, and some of his words are clipped or softer. 

“By design,” Arthur says with a grin. 

Lewis smiles at him. “You know they love you.” 

“Yeah,” Arthur replies dropping into the chair beside Lewis’s bed. “I can’t imagine what’d happen to me if they didn’t. Actually, yes I probably could.” 

Lewis grins wider at him, shaking his head gingerly a moment. Arthur looks at him keenly, eyes darting over his face. 

“How do you feel?” 

“I’m okay,” Lewis says. “Painkillers help. Doctor says I can leave tomorrow. They just wanted to make sure nothing else cropped up.” He starts to yawn and quickly puts his fist to his lower jaw, pushing up as the yawn threatens to undo the bandages’ work. His other arm is still in a slung per the doctor’s request. “Sorry,” Lewis says, blinking the tears the yawn and pain from it had produced. 

“It’s fine Lew. I’m just glad you’re okay.” 

“That was some fine work out there buddy. I owe you.” 

Arthur heaves a breath. “What do you mean? You got beat unconscious. I just snuck up from behind and threw some chains.” 

“You know exactly what I mean. I swear Arthur,” Lewis says with a sigh. “I wish you’d give yourself some credit. You’re smarter than you think you are.” 

“I just got lucky.”

Lewis sighs again, a sad look on his face as he watches Arthur pluck at Mystery’s fur stuck in his vest.

“Vivi said she’d come around in another hour or two,” Arthur tells him, trying to change the subject, still looking down.

“That’s good.”

Lewis’s hand falls into Arthur’s field of vision, clasping gently at Arthur’s ever-moving hands, holding gently but firmly, his heat bleeding into Arthur’s skin. Arthur looks up at Lewis. “Arthur. Please. For once, be nice to yourself. For me at the very least.”

Arthur smiles at him. _For you I’d touch the sun_ , he thinks, staring into Lewis’s eyes. Without his hair gel, his bangs seem extra long, but he has them swept to the side, so Arthur could gaze into his eyes with no problem. Arthur had brought him fresh clothes yesterday but hadn’t brought along his hair gel, worried the nurses wouldn’t let him use it. Part of him didn’t want Lewis to ever use it again, just so he could always see his eyes. That same part of him cried desperately for Arthur to say that out loud, to finally say _something_. But, as it had so many times before, it is crushed by his anxiety, by the fear of rejection and change. So Arthur smiles at him and nods.

“Okay.”

``````

When Vivi gets there, Arthur is already heading back to their shared apartment. She brings him dinner, a soup she picked up from the Pepper Paradiso, so spicy it makes her eyes water when she opens the lid. Lewis smiles, taking the bowl from her gently. “Mom loves making it extra spicy when I’m sick. I guess old habits die hard.”

Vivi giggles before handing him the spoon that came with it and sitting in the chair by the bed. He eats slowly, savoring every drop as Vivi watches him. Forced to wear the hospital gowns, Lewis has been always a little cold since waking up here, so the soup warms him in more than one way.

“I heard your sisters stopped by.”

“Yeah. Dad’s always a big softie when it comes to them. I told them I’d be back tomorrow but they had to see me today.”

Vivi smiles. “It’s nice to have family like that.”

Lewis joins her smile before taking another spoonful.

Vivi fidgets slightly, waiting until he’s done before speaking again, softly. “Are you still…are you sure…do you still want to be a group?” It is unusual for her to be soft-spoken and hesitant; she usually barrels through her sentences without thought once she gets started.

The question throws Lewis, who looks at her confused. “Huh?”

Vivi fidgets again, picking at her sleeve. “I mean, do you still want to…you know, deal with ghosts after all this? It’s okay if you don’t,” she adds quickly, looking up at him over her glasses. “I mean, you got pretty messed up.”

Lewis’s face softens as he realizes Vivi’s anxiety, and gently puts his hand over hers. “Vivi, this stuff is my _dream_. I mean, yeah, I definitely wasn’t planning to get pummeled, but it was bound to happen eventually. We’ve all had our share of injuries over the past year.”

Vivi smiles at him, relief etched into her features. “That’s true,” she says, more like herself.

Lewis grins at her.

“I guess that means I can ask my other question without it being awkward.” Vivi takes Lewis’s hand between both of hers, shifting to look at him directly. “Lewis Pepper, will you date me?”

Lewis blinks several times, processing. Now it’s his turn to be hesitant. “But, Vi, I’m asexual.”

Vivi laughs brightly. “And I’m pansexual? What’s that got to do with anything? We can figure out the sex part later. I mean, you never mentioned anything about being aromantic, I suppose I should have asked about that before asking you, are you aromantic?”

Lewis smiles at her, his heart full. “No,” he says. “Just asexual.”

“So…is that a yes?”

Lewis looks down a moment. “I…I want to say yes,” he says. “But…I have to make sure…I have to – ”

“It’s about Arthur isn’t it?”

Lewis snaps back up to look at her, her face understanding. “How – ?”

“Oh, come on Lew, I’ve seen the way you guys look at each other. It took me a few months to realize you two _weren’t_ a couple after we first met.”

Lewis looks down again at his hands in his lap. “He never asked,” Lewis says. “And I didn’t want to put him in a relationship where he might not get everything he needs.”

“Do you really think that he wouldn’t be happy with you as more than a best friend?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, he could have…we could have been…I didn’t think it was right to ask him.”

“I could do it.”

Lewis looks up at her again. She’s grinning, eyes bright. “I mean, I can’t say I’ve ever been in a poly relationship, but I’m certainly willing to try. We’re so close as it is. It’s kind of like war conditions. We’ve been through so much danger together we’re practically a family by now. Or at least something stronger than just friends."

"I don’t know if Arthur would be up for that. He’s…well you know what he was like when you first came around.”

“That odd combination of shy and jealous?”

Lewis huffs more than laughs. “Yeah.”

“Come on, I think I’ve grown on him since then.”

“You have. But…well I just don’t know. He’s not been in a real relationship in so long. To suddenly have _two_ partners…I don’t want him to get overwhelmed. I mean, just thinking about it has _me_ overwhelmed.”

“Then ask him,” Vivi says as if it’s obvious. “Tell him I asked you out. See what his response is. If you want, ask him to join us.”

“What brought this all about?” Lewis asks, looking at her.

Vivi’s gaze drops a moment. “Seeing you there in that yard…I mean we all knew you were going in as bait, but _seeing_ you like that…” her eyes snap up and peer into his. “I didn’t want to lose you. And not just as a friend, but because you mean more to me than that. I told myself if you made it out okay, I’d finally ask you. I mean, friendships can be deep, ours already is, but…oh I don’t know!” Vivi throws up her hands with a huff. She is silent, words tangling into a spun mess in her head.

“For once I’ve flabbergasted Vivi Yukino.”

Vivi looks at him, mouth open. He beams at her, unperturbed by the glare she’s giving him. Then she grins. “I guess you did.”

``````

It’s Arthur who takes Lewis home the next morning, his day off. The bandages are finally off, though he’s keeping the sling on for the next day just to be on the safe side. For a while there’s a comfortable silence between them, Arthur driving, Lewis next to him, watching the town go by. Lewis can’t stop grinning, and he’s not sure if it’s because he can finally talk normally without the bandages hindering him, or if it’s because of Vivi’s question the night before.

“Happy to head home?” Arthur finally says, grinning at him.

“Absolutely,” Lewis replies, still beaming.

“Yeah, the apartment was too quiet with you gone.”

“I’m sure. How’s Mystery doing?”

“Sulking. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s more your dog than Vi’s at this point.”

Lewis laughs with Arthur and Lewis’s heart swells again.

“Speaking of Vi,” Lewis starts, suddenly shy, “She…well, she asked me out last night.”

“Really?” Arthur’s staring at the road now, his grip on the steering wheel tightening slightly. “That’s…wow…that’s great Lew.”

Lewis looks at him keenly, trying to gauge behind the mask of Arthur’s face. “You think so?”

Arthur turns to look at him, smiling heartily. “Yeah man. I know how you’ve been worried about…well about that sort of thing. It’s good. You guys will make a great couple.”

“Are you sure?” Lewis can’t tell whether Arthur’s smile is forced or not, he’s gotten so good at it now.

“You two will be great. I’m really happy for you two.” Arthur looks at him again, smiling widely. “Just don’t forget about me okay?”

“Of course not Artie. I could never forget my best friend.”

Arthur smiles again, though this one is definitely forced.

Lewis opens his mouth before closing it again. There was something else he was supposed to say. Vivi had told him…what was it, again? The last couple of days were a blur, painkillers and his sleeping schedule making the days’ events come in dollops of time, mixing up like a cake recipe in the bowl. He remembered some things, clear and bright moments; the first time he woke up in the hospital with his parents looking worriedly at him, Arthur and Vivi coming to see him for the first time later that day, waking up in a panic in the middle of the night from a nightmare, Vivi asking him out while holding his hand in both of hers. They had talked about something else, _what was it?_

Lewis can’t remember.

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus points to the fellow dorks who can name the show and episode I stole the spectre handling lol. Also, pals, I'm drowning in ideas for this fandom. Don't send help tho, these past two months I've written more in than the six months before.


End file.
